A friend of mine sent me this about his TSA experience. He, unlike most of us,
was coming back into the country from Afghanistan on a military charter.
——–
As the Chalk Leader for my flight home from Afghanistan, I witnessed the
following:
When we were on our way back from Afghanistan, we flew out of Baghram Air Field.
We went through customs at BAF, full body scanners (no groping), had all of our
bags searched, the whole nine yards.
Our first stop was Shannon, Ireland to refuel. After that, we had to stop at
Indianapolis, Indiana to drop off about 100 folks from the Indiana National
Guard. That’s where the stupid started.
First, everyone was forced to get off the plane–even though the plane wasn’t
refueling again. All 330 people got off that plane, rather than let the 100
people from the ING get off. We were filed from the plane to a holding area. No
vending machines, no means of escape. Only a male/female latrine.
It’s probably important to mention that we were ALL carrying weapons. Everyone
was carrying an M4 Carbine (rifle) and some, like me, were also carrying an M9
pistol. Oh, and our gunners had M-240B machine guns. Of course, the weapons
weren’t loaded. And we had been cleared of all ammo well before we even got to
customs at Baghram, then AGAIN at customs.
The TSA personnel at the airport seriously considered making us unload all of
the baggage from the SECURE cargo hold to have it reinspected. Keep in mind,
this cargo had been unpacked, inspected piece by piece by U.S. Customs
officials, resealed and had bomb-sniffing dogs give it a one-hour run through.
After two hours of sitting in this holding area, the TSA decided not to
reinspect our Cargo–just to inspect us again: Soldiers on the way home from war,
who had already been inspected, reinspected and kept in a SECURE holding area
for 2 hours. Ok, whatever. So we lined up to go through security AGAIN.
This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were
carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.
So we’re in line, going through one at a time. One of our Soldiers had his
Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A
few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a pair of nail clippers.
Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they’re going to confiscate his nail
clippers. The conversation went something like this:
TSA Guy: You can’t take those on the plane.
Soldier: What? I’ve had them since we left country.
TSA Guy: You’re not suppose to have them.
Soldier: Why?
TSA Guy: They can be used as a weapon.
Soldier: [touches butt stock of the rifle] But this actually is a weapon. And
I’m allowed to take it on.
TSA Guy: Yeah but you can’t use it to take over the plane. You don’t have
bullets.
Soldier: And I can take over the plane with nail clippers?
TSA Guy: [awkward silence]
Me: Dude, just give him your damn nail clippers so we can get the f**k out of
here. I’ll buy you a new set.
Soldier: [hands nail clippers to TSA guy, makes it through security]
This might be a good time to remind everyone that approximately 233 people
re-boarded that plane with assault rifles, pistols, and machine guns–but nothing
that could have been used as a weapon.

Wait, compulsory civil service is GOOD now?! I can't keep track of all these twisty talking points!

The story is actually from Erick Erickson of RedState, who swears it's true, but while the blogs are full of troops telling tales of their own encounters being re-screened, nail clippers have never been banned by the TSA.

(Measuring the irony of red-blooded right-wingers getting upset about yet another invasive Bush-era security program is left as an exercise for the reader.)

The reason the TSA even exists is because the private sector security we had at airports previously wasn't working. People were getting through security with guns, knives, chainsaws and God-knows-what else.

It became such a problem that the public was demanding that the government step in and take over.

Well the TSA staffers are gov't workers, but the private sector *is* really running the show and making huge bucks off of "selling" the rape-scan equipment to US taxpayers for a pretty penny. Just ask John Chertoff, who is laughing all the way to the bank on YOUR tax dollars with his new rape-cancer-scan machine, which is effectively useless in terms of an "protection" from terrorists.

This does appear to be one of those forwards that is "dissing" some gov't program simply because a black Democrat (in name only) happens to be President. If McCain had won (shudder), everyone would be clapping and cheering everything that TSA did.

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